Frags in Germany

Wow, has it been a long time since I have blogged, let alone join in the Friday festivities of blogland! I miss writing, but life has been pretty busy since the move here. I wish I could say all the business came from the travels here in Europe…but alas. Moving 7 people around the Continent is a bit pricy 😉

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This past October, we had the pleasure of hitting Wittenberg for the actual day of Reformation. It was both enjoyable and disappointing. With our bent for history, it was amazing to be standing in front of the church and walking the streets where the Reformation took place! However, as they are gearing up for the 500th Anniversary in 2017, all the major Reformation structures were completely covered with scaffolding. All we could see were the doors of the Schloss Kapelle (Castle Church) and Luther’s historic home. I highly recommend this trip and will hopefully be blogging about it soon!

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This was, by far, the best year we have ever had in starting homeschool! The kids and I found our groove very quickly and we had no major attitude issues to address. Considering how many years we have been doing this, I considered it a HUGE blessing! I have all 5 kiddos at the table this year. Both Noah and hubby felt that the youngest was ready for pre-school. I must confess, Noah is doing well. There are days when he just ‘doesn’t feel like it’, but those are few and far between.

My son and I were both struggling through Algebra 😉 We do a lot of YouTube watching and we use the Algebra app (it goes along with the Pre-Algebra app I have reviewed here) to get us through the lessons. It was actually helpful to be struggling through my college algebra course at the same time. I could commiserate with my son while showing him that there are times in life when you need to simply lean into the yolk and ‘take that hill’!! We did a lot of praying through it, as well.

I am trying to update my post with everything we are using to study the 20th Century. I had never really studied WWI in-depth before. Here are some things I learned:

• WWI was a war of allies. Countries were forced in to the war by treaties with other countries. Many against their desire and better judgement.
• WWI began with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. That I knew, but what shocked me was that he was a very unpopular leader. His countrymen didn’t mind his death much.
• WWI was the first time chemical warfare entered the battlefield.
• WWI was at stalemate until the United States tipped the scales toward the Allied Powers.
• Charles Lindbergh was an isolationist and rallied for isolation until the sinking of the Lusitania. He then worked diligently to support the troops overseas however he could.
• The Bolshevik Revolution (Russian Revolution) is much more complex than I ever imagined. For a brief period, the Russian government was a complete democracy. This meant each resolution was put to a vote.
• Joseph Stalin was a more brutal dictator than any of his political peers (to include Hitler).

We are hoping to begin hitting some of the WWI and WWII historic sites over here soon. I find it quite fascinating that some historic sites here in Europe are not very ‘English speaking’ friendly. We are taking German, but don’t have it mastered enough for some of the sites we have hit. So far my favorite site has been Eisleben, where Luther was born. It is a lovely town, very friendly towards visitors. The most amazing scenery so far has been at the historic castle of the German Royal family, Hohenzollern Castle. 

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Can I tell y’all that I am pretty happy about being overseas right now? The political, social, economic scene in America these days looks pretty grim. Without cable here, I missed most of the ugliness of the past election. Not that politics doesn’t interest me, nor do I believe that I can just shove my head in the sand about any of it, but I sure didn’t miss the chaos of the election.

That being said, I am praying for our nation. I trust in God more than rulers, leaders, and principalities.

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That’s about all I can get written before life here gets a bit crazy. We have some exams to do today, so we must get to them. I hope y’all have a great weekend!!